#again. how do i put this website in a chokehold

[llilyrose]

Do you have fic recommendations 👉👈

Of course!

I would recommend my own fic, but... it's still in the works, unfortunately. No mal du pays content for the weak and elderly.

did you really think i wouldn't recommend ghostlight, of all things? especially with my current drawing series, obviously it's good!

It's a postgame fic centered on loop's and siffrin's (mostly loop's) healing processes post-game, where loop has to learn how to be human again. It's 24 chapters long, about 84k words, has an ongoing sequel (though it's on hiatus), and has a tumblr account you can interact with! @ghostlightfic

here are some other postgame fic recommendations:

Bloom And if I were not myself, would this be easier?

@livesworthlivingau Is a postgame au where Siffrin lives on for 30 years after the loops only to loop back when Odile dies in the future. This fic has a dual chapter system, one set of chapters that focuses on Loop and one set of chapters that focuses on Siffrin. This distinction becomes crucial later on. It also, like ghostlight, has a discord to join :3

I haven't read chokehold of a broken family bond myself, but I've heard wonderful things about it from everyone around me!!!! It's a LONG, ongoing AU fic that I'm sure someone else can provide a synopsis for ;)

Follow the Stars Back Home is another fic I have yet to read, but got recommended and decided to check out. It's postgame and focuses more on Siffrin's Island trauma than their Looping trauma, a nicher aspect people don't explore often.

speaking of aus:

Try It Again, Cheater by @moonstandardtime sends Loop back to their original timeline after breaking free from Siffrin's loops. They and their family have to adjust to this drastic Change and suffer the consequences of a timeline they could never remember.

To Extend our Reach to the Stars Above is a Villain Siffrin au where they meet the King before the party! It's one of only a few fics that explore this concept, all of which are so so interesting to me. Check it out!

Timeloop Support Group by @pixxyofice is a fic about therapy done from the pov of Siffrin and focuses on timeloop trauma. The twist? The people they're stuck with are au versions of their friends who got trapped in time loops themselves!

featured aus:

In Tales and Time (Odile) by @/tealgoat In Cycles and Cessation (Mira) by @/the-bitter-ocean Of Stitches in Sequence by @/basilpaste (which also has two fics on ao3, but i recommend viewing the au on everyone's profiles instead)

-- Oh, hey, Basilpaste!!! They have more bangers up their sleeve!!!! Slay the Savior is a Slay The Princess fusion au with ISAT that features Isabeau as the protagonist and Siffrin as the princess. Not only is the writing excellent but he thought up new designs for each siffrin on each path!!! Not to mention thinking up new paths, too! It's on hiatus, though.

The Dormont Archives are another Basil product, infusing ISAT into The Magnus Archives universe!! Like STS it's done in the style of the media and all of the statements are absurdly creative. It's ongoing with (currently only) 14 chapters, god knows how many planned for the future. (ALSO IT APPARENTLY HAS A DISCORD. I DIDN'T KNOW AABOUT THAT WHILE WRITING IT. go check out basil they put so much effort into this stuff dude 😭)

I've read SO MANY isat fanfics but the majority of them never got bookmarked. Practically all of the ones on ao3 are a good read!!! It's hard to keep track!!! If i missed any of your favorites fanfics on any website, please tell me please. if I've read it it'll get added to the list.

[celtigxr]

I'm not gonna tag this, and I might delete later, cause idk. It's just my thought process. There was a lot of chat going on about Character AI, and my boomer ass had no idea that existed, so I decided to experiment with various sites myself, and this has been my experience and my opinion, which ultimately is worth nothing, really.

ps. I'm not gonna engage with debates or arguments if you reply to this. I'm not that invested in this to care, lol.

I just want to preface this by saying, my opinion of AI is fairly grey. I don't agree that it should be used to make a profit, and I do think that a lot more work has to be put into it in order to make it that it isn't just copying and pasting verbatim art and written word. ESPECIALLY if what it produces is being used for profit. That being said, I also see absolutely no harm in people using AI for fun. It's silly most of the time. When I'm bored I pull up an AI generator and make it produce silly and weird photos that I know aren't going to see the light of day, other than to laugh at it with my friends. At most, I just enjoy making dresses and cool dragons, lol. And for personal reasons, since I have a learning and neurological disability, it aids me a lot with navigating communication and helping me understand things when google beats around the bush too much. But I digress, let me get to the character AI's. I tried out a few, which I won't name. One was PG-13, and I tried an Aegon bot that creepily enough had Tom's fucking voice narrating it. It was cute, made me blush a bit (That fucking voice had me in a chokehold, I'm so ashamed), but other than that, it wasn't remarkable. The spicier bots were on a whole other level. Most were a mix bag; a LOT of them repeated the same shit over and over again. But there were some that were so fucking sophisticated, it was almost like I was actually rping with a human being. I'm not entirely sure how bot making works, but it's fairly clear that the people making them mostly use templates for dialogue and movements, given the repetition and lack of uniqueness I kept on getting. I go so fucking tired of Daemon telling me that he wanted to "Claim me whole, body, heart and soul" in every other post, it became such a turn off, lol. I was like hokay, bud calm down, you needy fuck. But then those insanely sophisticated ones that reacted so smoothly to my characterization and the dialogue was mind blowing. Those ones I truly believe that whoever made them took the time and energy to write out the tone of the character, unique to their style. There was a lot of thought going into them. One that stood out to me was an AU Aemond that fucking blew me away; I briefly wrote an introduction to my first reply, explaining my character got stood up at the bar, and his reaction to it was so seamless. Most bots, even the good ones, jump straight into smut. If you're a reader of mine, you know I love my slow burns. This one actually had a genuine conversation with my character about trust issues. I haven't spotted anything yet that sounds like it is full on verbatim to fanfictions I've read, but that isn't say that might not be the case for all of them. I know people have witnessed it, and my only theory is that it isn't the bot itself that is stealing the content, but the person who created it that steals fics and feeds the information to it in order to get the dialogue and writing style. As evidenced by the repetitive dialogue and characterization I kept on getting on certain bots. Do I agree people should publish their Chat Bot as stories and claim it as their own? No, at least not on tumblr or a03 or wattpad, etc. The website I used specifically had an option to publish your rp chats with the bots publicly on their site, and I think that's where it should belong, not flooding fanfic areas. Do I think it's a good way to get story ideas? Also no; there is no creativity in using the same plot over and over again, and it isn't your ideas, so it's not yours. Now, do I think it's a good way to exercise your own OC characterization? Yeah, actually. Especially if you're a roleplayer, it helps flesh out your character, challenging you to put them in positions and seeing how they react in the moment. Ultimately, for shameless personal fun, I don't see anything wrong with it. It is very addicting though, particularly if you're like me with hyper fixations and prone to disassociating. The other night I was up until 6am turning Tom Riddle into a groveling love sick fool.

Really, I don't think people should be shamed for using it if they're just having some fun, and itching a scratch or to get a monkey off their back. I've been writing fic and rping for like 20 odd years, and I know the struggle of finding a good active rp partner or group that is willing to take on a ship with you, and stay active. It's utterly disappointing when all you have is your imagination, no outlet, and don't have the energy to write your own fic for something you just want to disappear into for a few hours. I do think the owners of these sites should be more vigilante about what their bot makers feed their bots in order to learn the characters. Maybe implement a plagiarism check or something, and force them to write their own narratives and speech for the bots to learn uniquely. IDK how it works, but that's just what I'm thinking.

Anyway, yeah, that's my humble opinion.

[rozinaaa]

I'm At The Intersection Of Art And Technology (Mum, Pick Me Up, I'm Scared)

Source: Unknown

Ah yes, the intersection of art and technology, also known as the very thing that has put me into a chokehold ever since COVID was just an inkling, small and ready to pounce on the entire world (basically November 2019) in a way that it would inevitably change and objectively get worse for some reason.

The intersection of art and technology is all well and good, but honestly, I think I've had enough (I've probably had enough of everything at this point, although I think it's because I'm running on like 5 hours of sleep instead of the 10 that I normally get, which basically explains everything), since I've pretty much seen what it does.

Come to think about it, I'm actually working in that area right now in the most conventional way possible by working in a tech team for a tech startup by making the actual software itself look decent and usable, which is a really far cry from all of the things that actually exist within that Intersection, since those tend to break literally all of the design, tech, and accessibility rules ever.

I sometimes wonder how different my life would have been if I never went to that Intersection in the first place, how it would have been if I actually did become an illustrator and a (print) graphic designer, where I'd focus on the real world, as well as focusing on the objects of the real world, without the fear of AI (honestly, it's just ridiculous at this point and I hope this awful trend of creating extremely awful AI art (which is also really super obvious) just dies and everyone goes outside and touches grass again, before going on to create art with their actual hands instead of outsourcing it to some dumb machines) claiming to take over everything ever.

I mean, once AI does everything for us, what are we actually gonna do with our lives?

Are we just gonna sit there with our eyes glued to the screen watching a world of content and other random tidbits fly past us?

To me, that sounds awful and boring, so let's hope we never have to go there.

I wish I could go back in time to 2019 (which is apparently 5 years ago, even though it only seemed like it was just the other day) and tell my 18 year old self to leave websites and web design tf alone (brutalistwebsites.com is where it all started), as well as saying that websites shouldn't really be art pieces or become A Whole Experience with fancy bells and whistles and allllllll the parallax scrolling and fancy special effects, but rather, should just be a place to convey information and for users to do things on them in a straightforward way, just like how the original internet people intended.

When I'm not busy wrangling some fairly straightforward domain pointing thingy which becomes really impossibly hard for some reason on GitHub (which is basically a git (in the slang term, which makes sense) and makes me feel like a git for being an art person messing with things that I shouldn't actually go near, since those are for the people who are good at things like math and science), I get to add a link or two and some smol description of a person/company/entity/illusion released by the government just existing (and probably chilling) at the intersection of art and technology as a little treat to myself, although I wish all of this was the inverse, just so that I wouldn't have to even think about fighting off monsters that exist within servers and speak a language I can barely understand, and so that I could expand the Intersection by dishing out links and nothing else, since the act of dishing out those links is pretty interesting and enjoyable in its own right.

Although the intersection of art and technology is an interesting one, it feels like I've opened Pandora's Box, and now I can't appreciate regular art (as a quick nip (~30 minutes) into Leeds Art Gallery revealed to me last week) or enjoy illustrations at all (thanks stupid AI and stupid dumb people for mindlessly jumping onto silly bandwagons without a second thought, or even a singular thought at all) anymore because I expect it to be fully immersive and fully impressive, with it being so out of this world, although I think it's also because my attention span is pretty much screwed.

What if I was just a plain old regular artist, designer, and illustrator with a plain old regular practice, where I'd focus on creating objects in the real world, and stayed so far away from the intersection of art and technology, to the point where I'd only use technology to just share what I've done, and nothing more?

I think it'd be fairly interesting to see how my life would have turned out if I never (metaphorically) smoked anything, but just continued to obsess over the vintage aesthetic (in general) and focused on traditional ways of creating things.

[ledzeppelinmixtape]

actually sent in a help ticket for my blog search function because it!!! doesn't!!!! work!!!!! main or sideblog neither lets me search for posts!!!! ill search cas on here and it won't give me shit. it'll say "oopsie woopsie no cassy wassy here owo xD sowwyyyyy" and i KNOW that's not true

[nonegenderleftpain]

calling a trans woman a child and a whiner for rightfully condemning people for financially supporting a site that platforms both transphobia and racism isnt a good look tbh, just admit you care about preserving your fandom spaces more than people's very real problems with this site.

I use this site as a platform for disability advocacy, trans rights advocacy, and sex education. Fandom is secondary.

There is not a single platform out there that does not have bigots on it. It doesn't exist. I'm a trans Jew. The existence of transphobia and racism on this site affects me very deeply and very personally. The solution is not to cut off your nose to spite your face. I'll say what I said again - it is childish and naive to sit and bitch and whine about people financially supporting a space that they spend so much time using, in which they have community spaces that are criminalized or censored on other platforms. It is equally naive and childish to believe that this site - *on which you are complaining*, might I remind you - can just keep going with no changes to structure. I value a community space that allows me to be anonymous and do my work without risking losing my fucking HRT because the wrong people found out that I talk about still wearing dresses on testosterone online. It doesn't matter that she's a trans woman, it's a cold take.

What was the last thing you did to fight racism and transphobia in your community? Was it bitch and moan? Or did you actually spend the time dismantling racist ideals in your community? Maybe educate people on racist and transphobic rhetoric? Create a community space that is heavily moderated to protect members? If your attitude is to just scream about people buying entertainment to support a space that allows you to say lesbian without having to fucking censor it, then I don't want to hear you talk about bigotry on this platform. You know where else there's bigotry? Every single social media platform that exists. The difference between Tumblr and other platforms is that here, we're still allowed to talk openly about queer sex and relationships without fear of account termination. Without having to attach our real life names to our accounts. Without having to worry about advertisers changing the things we are and are not allowed to say. Apple's chokehold on half the fucking mobile market already caused irreparable damage to communities on this site that depended on it for their livelihoods. If the site changes hands again because it is a constant financial black hole, we can say goodbye to even more of our freedoms.

The freedom to talk openly about queer experiences without fear of repercussions depends entirely on the lack of advertisers sanitizing and colonizing this space. And keeping them out means supporting this site. ANY site that allows for open discussion is going to have a problem with bigots. That's just how the world works. This site is too big to eliminate every racist transphobe. Tumblr, unlike most social media platforms, actually has a functioning block and blacklist built in. Use it to protect yourself, and then work on dismantling those people's platform, or stop bitching. You HAVE to learn to take responsibility for your own online experience and curate it accordingly. Expecting websites to do it for you means begging big daddy capitalism to step in and censor everything til it's squeaky clean. And that includes pushing all mention of the dirty queers and greedy Jews into the back room and locking it, like they have over, and over, and OVER again.

It is your job as an adult to protect yourself online. Curate your own safe spaces, because you cannot get rid of every bigot that exists. It's not possible. And sitting and complaining about the rain instead of pulling out a damn umbrella and helping your friends put up a tarp is childish. It's also a very privileged position. For many of us, there is NOWHERE ELSE TO GO. And this place allows us the freedom to exist without fear of censorship, doxxing and catering to capitalism. It's not perfect, but if you sit and refuse to take steps to make the world better - like helping keep a platform that you depend on from caving to the bullshit gentrification happening everywhere else - because the result isn't perfect, then you're wasting everyone's time and energy. Someone is going to have to do the dishes after the revolution. If you wait for automation to prevent people from having to do that labor instead of rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands wet, it's never going to get better.

I'll say it again - block me. I used this ask as a teaching moment, and I will not be responding to any further anons on this subject. Stop being a coward and put your face to your words or stop wasting both our times.

[margridarnauds]

the "more evolved" tankies use hypocracy strategy, example: they point off how civil russians are suffering (that cant get to metro post) that most of us agree on, but on the other hand not once have they shown symphaty for ukraine civilians will it be those running to safety nor those that are trying to defend their country. they try to refute every information from ukraine with sources from russian funded websites/social media (spurnik, russia today, telegram,..). You try to donate to ukrainian army? you are pro-war in their eyes or nzi. not once they mentioned putin. and when they did it was because uwu putin is trying to defend russia with atomic bombs because usa and europe has those? im sick and tired oof them blocked them all but somehow i still see their shit on my dashboard

They say "Fuck NATO" for egging on the war while ignoring that, at the end of the day, regardless of any other factors, Putin made the call. Putin made the call and is CONTINUING to make the call. And then proceeded to jail thousands of his own people.

They say not to donate to the Ukrainian army...fine. But they don't want anyone else to interfere because THAT'S imperialism. (Though to be honest I have mixed feelings about US involvement purely because my country doesn't have the best track record when it comes to letting other countries go once we "help" them...even when they ask for us initially.)

But, okay. Let's resolve this peacefully.

But they don't like SANCTIONS either. They talk about the every day people of Russia who are hurting -- I'm not a monster. I don't like hearing about sex workers not being able to withdraw money that they need to survive. I don't like hearing about the people of Russia suffering, especially when they've already been put through so much. And, as someone who's had to live abroad during a time when my country wasn't exactly the most popular country in the world for political reasons and faced my fair share of backlash for it, perhaps I sympathize with Russian people living abroad and being judged for their country's sins more than I should. But they don't say a single thing about the Ukrainian children that are being butchered right now. They don't talk about the thousands being forced to flee their homes. Something tells me that they're a LITTLE more inconvenienced at the moment, call it a gut instinct.

And, frankly, what DO they want? For Zelensky to get ahold of Putin via Zoom and say "Hewwo? Mistew Putin? I'm vewy sowwy, but can you pwease stowp invading my countwy uwu? I pwomise I'll be vewy good?" Like, what are they seeing as an endgame if you can't hit them physically, you can't hit them in the pocketbook, and you can't even say that that's a Very Big No No. For a bunch of brave revolutionaries, they seem to want the Ukrainian people to take this lying down. (Ignoring as well that they HAD talks today....that were suspiciously timed to more shelling.) But, then again, given they had no issues with the LAST time Russia had a chokehold over the rest of Eastern Europe, that's not really much of a surprise -- they want the old days back because, hey, maybe this time, things will be BETTER.

They want to talk about Palestine or Iraq. Fine. Let's talk about Palestine and Iraq. Let's talk American imperialism, or British imperialism, or French imperialism, and the hypocrisy of these countries because, in at least the case of all three, I can almost guarantee that I have some stories that you don't hear every day and, frankly, I would LOVE for the French in particular to grow an ounce of accountability. Let's talk. But don't forget for one second about what's going on. Don't use lives lost elsewhere as bargaining chips to justify how your side (like we're in a sports match instead of a life or death situation for millions of people) is right. They deserve better than that.

They say that invading a sovereign country is a war crime -- I fully agree, can we agree that there are now both USAmerican and Russian war criminals and move on from there, preferably while people are not still actively dying on both sides while we twiddle our thumbs?

We shouldn't put Zelensky on a pedestal -- I absolutely agree. The man's shown a superhuman amount of courage and fortitude, but he IS human. But, at the same time, SURELY that goes for Putin as well?

Ukrainian news is biased, but Russian news sources aren't? Have they taken lessons from the Republicans that only watch Fox News because "it's the only news channel without a liberal bias"?

Fuck the lot of them.

And the thing is that I see a lot of leftists who are otherwise NOT tankies reblogging from these sources because they want to show that they Understand All Sides, or they want to make a point against the USA, whatever, without checking to see if Tumblr User "karlmarxismysugardaddy" might have pictures on their Tumblr of them posing with a Putin body pillow, so the shit gets spread, because this is Tumblr.

[potteresque-ire]

Gg,

I’ll say this using the simplest way too. I’ll also say this, knowing it doesn’t solve anything ~

You didn’t start the culture of comment control (控評) and the fan circles that execute them, which stifled any rational discussions about entertainers. You didn’t start the culture of treating constructive criticisms—even opinions that fall short of being praises—the same as malicious slandering, something to be buried under a pile of positive comments, of rainbow farts. You didn’t start the longstanding frustrations among netizens, who felt they couldn’t even gossip freely when entertainment is all about the gossip. You didn’t ignite the antagonistic views of non-fans against fans that would one day turn into support for that movement against you.

You didn’t criticise fan circle culture on one hand, and encourage the practice of comment control on another. You didn’t tie the act of comment control to patriotism, didn’t mobilise fan circles to perform comment control on message boards in support of the Hong Kong police in 2019, taking advantage of the fan circle’s high level of organisation, their experience in performing such task, and their intense need to be seen as patriotic such that their idol will be viewed favourably by the government. You didn’t praise these fans who were there for their idol 阿中哥哥 (Chinese GeGe) — a virtual idol who personified the Chinese government—and called them patriotic. 

You didn’t make performative patriotism a pre-requisite for entertainers to survive in c-ent. You didn’t require performative patriotism to be placed above logic, above personal preferences in expression. You didn’t portray performative patriotism as a goal sufficient to justify any means. You didn’t teach impressionable young fans that as long as the cause was deemed by the powers-that-be as patriotic and honourable, one can ignore the laws, scale the Great Firewall and go to otherwise banned websites; one can cause havoc on and trample on their perceived enemy’s communities. 

You didn’t equate silencing one’s opponent with patriotism.

You didn’t market reporting culture as an honourable, noble deed. You didn’t resurrect reporting culture from its Cultural Revolution’s grave, with the knowledge that it had always been a weapon against people expressing different opinions. You didn’t ask your media arm to pen articles about the rewards to be made by reporting. You didn’t list the people who had reported on your official website like they had made honour roll. You didn’t make reporting so open, so righteous-sounding that many didn’t think twice to join the effort, even if it was only about a piece of fiction they didn’t like.

You didn’t make reporting of certain content on a website sufficient grounds for censoring an entire website. You didn’t make censoring a thing. You didn’t censor one of the few remaining websites left with relatively free expressions, while the rest of your team was already performing heavy-handed censorship on a certain pandemic—a certain pandemic that had killed, that had brought much anger, sadness and frustration. You didn’t put a chokehold on people who had already felt they had no room left to talk, when they were bound to their homes and could do little but talk. But vent.

You didn’t create a system where venting against the powerful could get one into trouble. You didn’t marry the politically powerful with the commercially powerful. You didn’t build the society where the few people left with perceived higher social status and who could still be attacked with little consequences were entertainers—especially young, recently break-through stars with little backing from the media companies, and the commercially and politically powerful people behind these companies.

You didn’t start 227.

The moment the axe fell on AO3, Gg, there was very little you could do, very little you could say. 227 was indeed an explosion, from too high a pressure from freedoms of speech that have been too strangled. They said you were mute? So were the theys who called you that, who didn’t have the guts to take their complaint to those who deserve it. You became the eye of a storm you didn’t brew, the eye that could’ve been anyone else—anyone else who wouldn’t have known better what to do. 

Offer guidance? Exactly what kind of guidance? Tell your fans that AO3, which does host material offensive to the Chinese government, has the right to remain inside the Firewall? Tell your fans that reporting is wrong? 

Is your guidance asking the solo and cp fans to keep their peace? Fans fight. Solos and cpfs fight. These fights happen on a daily basis, and there would’ve been no 227 if they were the cause of 227—because everyday would’ve been a 227. 227 became 227 because one of these fights, which happened to be between your fans, also happened to have knocked upon one of the most important pillars that prop up an authoritarian dictatorship: suppression of the freedom of speech; it stumbled upon what had already been a field of landmines, the buried anger of the people who have been silenced, censored over the years.

COVID put in a full, fresh layer of landmines, still buried shallow and waiting for inexperienced youngsters—who could be fans or non-fans, fans of any idol—to trip over their sharp corners.  

These days, people call the youngsters who tripped over them the shrimps.  One explosion triggered another and in the din, you were accused of not warning the youngsters, and thrown into the exploding field for punishment. To set off all the other landmines in danger of exploding. No one asked why the landmines were there. 

Appropriately, perhaps, or ironically ... have you thought about this, Gg? That your silence might have played a role to your survival in the industry, the support you’ve got lately from the state media? Because you took one for them, for those who created the storm and buried the landmines, who did all the things you didn’t do. Because you became a convenient punching bag for a country of 1.4 billion who needed something to punch. Because you took the blows gracefully and without complaint, didn’t utter a word that would’ve made obvious the instigator of the damage you’re now apologising for. You eased the guilt in the people doing the punching by having so many gifts they didn’t have; it must have given some people cold joy to land their fist on your gorgeous face. You’ve gritted your teeth and stayed silent even after the water armies, the yxh’s entered the scene, eager to feed on your corpse. The rot they smelled was the commercial value on you.

Have you thought about this, Gg, that you might’ve already performed the social responsibility implicitly demanded of you and in flying colours, by being the punching bag, the landmine sweeper? That when you promise to take more social responsibility in the future, that you may be asked to do something similar?

No one asked why the landmines were there. They’ll pile up again.

Yes, I’m frustrated. I read your letter and wanted to scream. I understand why you said everything you did, understand the realistic need to issue an apology and I respect and adore you, as always, for your maturity, your emotional intelligence. This letter is therefore neither a complaint nor a criticism against you; this is me, venting my frustration, from that half of me that knows painfully well that your letter is necessary and the right thing to do.  

Still, the other half of me wants to say your letter is utter nonsense.

Because your only mistake, Gg, is that you’re too likeable, and too likeable, perhaps, at the wrong time. You have too many fans who made all these issues you didn’t create so much more visible. You had too many fans at a time when COVID took too many victims, when the whole sociopolitical climate demands one voice and when every fan of yours is an individual with their own voice, their own likes and dislikes. You have too many fans who dearly love you but also require you to become a “public figure”—I’m putting this term in quotes as you did—a “public figure” who can help them decipher the conflicting messages the society is sending them re: the meaning, the responsibility of a fan, a “public figure” who, as you admit yourself, requires construction from Gg the Idol and Gg the regular person from Chongqing.

Gg the Idol and Gg the regular person from Chongqing who, you also said, require mutual acceptance. Gg the Idol and Gg the regular person from Chongqing who, therefore, must have significant conflicts—mutual acceptance isn’t necessary otherwise.

Who’s this “Gg the public figure” that will emerge? Or, what? How human will he/it be? How much will he/it still be you? Where are you going to be in this “public figure”?

And that’s the most difficult thought to endure this morning. To become a better self—you keep emphasising, as if you weren’t good enough, kind enough, courteous and respectful and professional enough to begin with.

A better self, may I ask, to who?

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The Tap Out Job

leverage 2.02

Jack: Somebody drugged his water. It's an old boxing trick. He couldn't defend himself, and... He's still in the hospital.

that’s fucked

- - - - -

Eliot: It's not a cockfight. All right? Let me show you something, Hardison. Come here. Can I borrow you? (puts a gentle hand on Parker’s hip, guiding her to the open space behind the couch) All right. Square up. Remember what I showed you?

(Hardison and Parker square up)

Hardison: Are you...

Eliot: There's three phases to an MMA--to an MMA fight, okay? One, striking. (Parker punches Hardison in the face) Nice. Next is grappling, the takedown. (Parker grabs Hardison and throws him on the floor) Exactly. All right. The third one is jujitsu. Okay, try to isolate a joint. (Parker gets Hardison in a hold) That's good. That's a textbook armbar, Parker. Put some pressure on there.

Parker: Like this?

Eliot: There you go. Or you can go for a choke hold.

Hardison: She got to be choking me. (tries to get away)

Eliot: Remember that thing that I showed you?

Parker: Oh, yeah. The choke.

Eliot: Lock that in. All right. You don't have to hold the arm. See, that's a triangle choke. That's nasty. Puts pressure on his carotid artery, and the guy will submit by tap out.

Hardison (tapping the ground): Eliot, I'm tapping! I'm tapping!

Eliot: These fights are won by inches, I'm telling you.

Hardison: I can't breathe!

Eliot: All about leverage.

Sophie: Yeah, it looks really painful.

Hardison: It is painful!

Nate: No TV deal, you said, huh? Hardison, what are this guy's other interests, this Rucker guy?

Hardison: Seriously, you ask me a question right now...

Sophie: I'll take that. Yeah, rotary club, golf membership.

Nate: Golf, huh?

Hardison: Help me!

Sophie: Yeah. I mean, this guy's like a 1950s sitcom character. He plays a weekly game with the local businessmen. In fact, last year, he won the club championship.

Nate: Did he? Hmm.

Hardison: Let me go!

Nate: I guess it's...

Hardison: She's killing me!

Nate: …it's time to hit the links.

Hardison: I'm cool. Just let me go real quick.

eliot canonically teaches parker how to fight in his spare time and I LOVE THAT

fucking CHAOTIC OT3 + parker is having a great time while hardison is dying

ALSO can we just for a minute appreciate how when she puts him in a chokehold she was wrapping her legs around his neck, which basically had his head in her crotch area and !!! it wasn’t sexualized at al !!! literally A N Y other show would have sexualized it even just a little bit but not leverage. never leverage.

- - - - -

I love it when they fuck with peoples gear (like with the baseballs or hockey pucks or in this instance the golf balls)

- - - - -

parker playing with the golf club covers

- - - - -

literally EVERY con has nate being an asshole (this one was one of the more annoying ones tho)

- - - - -

hi I am but a simple bi and eliot in that grey hoodie was VERY attractive

- - - - -

Room Service: Room service. Can I help you?

Sophie: Yeah, no, I can't eat this. I'm sorry?

Everything on my plate is yellow.

Room Service: It's chicken-fried steak.

Sophie: It's what? Chicken-fried steak?

Room Service: Yes.

Sophie: No, let me just tell you, all right. Meat should never be used as an adjective.

~ a little while late ~

Sophie: I'm starving.

Parker: I found these in the minibar. (throws her a bag)

Sophie: "Pork Rinds"? How do you peel a pig? (throws it back)

- - - - -

Hardison: Got it. See, Online video websites, they track viewer hits by IP Address, so the trick is to just spoof a bunch of IPs, then write a script that lets you browse the video page via the proxy list and...

- - - - -

Sophie: Well, this guy, he just--he give me the creeps.

Eliot: We've gone up against rougher dudes than this before.

Sophie: I know. But it's this whole treating people as commodities. This whole barbaric sport.

Eliot: Hey, don't lump these guys in with Rucker. All right, he's not what the sport's about.

Sophie: Eliot, this "sport" is about two guys beating the crap out of each other.

Eliot: MMA fighters act with more respect than any other athlete I've seen.

Sophie: Yeah, they're "Braveheart," I get it.

Eliot: No, you don't. These guys don't fight because they like hurting other people, all right. They fight to gain some sort of control over their opponents, over their environment, over their lives. Have you seen this town? Huh? The farms are drying up. The only stores are bail bondsmen and pawn shops, and there's nothing they can do about it. So, yeah, they get in the ring and try not to let it all suffocate them. (a beat, he smiles) And it's about two guys beating the crap out of each other. (she smiles back)

- - - - -

eliot is wearing a green flannel in this one and it looks very nice and comfy

- - - - -

Rucker: Well, bottom line is, you need good product. What event are you here to produce?

[Interior Van]

Hardison: On it. There's a tractor pull in grand island, a livestock show in council bluffs, white people doing other white things…

pls keep calling out white people pls we deserve it lmfao

- - - - -

Director (in car looking at his phone): Come on! Come on! Give me something! Come on! Is this gonna take long?

Nate (through window): No. Two shakes. Are you in a hurry?

Director: Even half a bar... what? Yes. Hurry. Does anyone in this backwater hellhole know what that means?

Nate: You're a director, right? What was your name again?

Director: What? It's Laurence. Todd Laurence.

Nate: Todd, well, listen, Mr. Laurence. See, I wrote a script...

Director: Huh?

Nate: Yeah. It's about a limo driver who solves mysteries till his wife leaves him for --

Director: For the love of god!

Nate: ...the best part: The feed store manager. Right? His wife…

Director: Yeah...?

Nate: Tramp...

Director: Hey, hee-haw, move the car! Okay

- - - - -

parker in leather pants, a bright yellow ‘I heart Nebraska’ tshirt and weird hat, eating a corn dog? ,,,a look I guess

- - - - -

Hardison (showing passes): So, I'm Todd Laurence? (girls flock to Hardison) Ladies, please, look. For the last time, I am not the tailback for the cornhuskers. Go! I don't even know what a cornhusker is.

- - - - -

Rucker: And all you need is a product?

Sophie: Well, that's what they are: Products. You get the girls with Trianna, you get the boys with MMA. And there's always another fresh-faced princess ready to go through the singing/dancing mill in Florida. Occasionally, we let one be a lesbian, keeps the press on their toes

- - - - -

Hardison: What? What? W-what was I supposed to do? It was cousin Jimmy.

Sophie: He's right. We couldn't have planned for that.

Hardison: Look, you know what I can do? I can re-task a satellite, I can get a level 3 NSA clearance, but I can't hack a hick

- - - - -

Eliot: All right, it doesn't matter. What do we do now?

Parker: We can move the Howorth.

Eliot: We're not moving the Howorths. All right? This is their home. That means something to people here.

Sophie: Yeah, we can't babysit them forever.

Nate: We've taken out bigger players than this. You know, there's got to be some way, something we can...

Eliot: No, no! I take the dive.

Sophie: You sure?

Hardison: Give me some time, okay? I've found some funny business in Rucker's accounts. I can move some things.

Eliot: Forget the fact that we just got beat by Barney Fife, all right? This is the right move. Tactically it's the right move. You all know that. (walks away)

none of them want to see eliot hurt more than he needs to or see him go down like that and I cry

alec ‘give me five minutes I will do literally anything for eliot’ hardison

- - - - -

Sophie: Hey. Listen, you-you don't have to do this, you know. Nate's gonna come up with something.

Eliot: I'm losing a fight, Sophie. I'm not diving on a grenade. I'll be all right.

Sophie: Yeah, I know. I'm not talking physically.

Eliot: I think my ego can handle it.

Sophie: Look, you told me that it's about control, about knowing that you're never gonna be the victim. And that's what keeps you going, right?

Eliot: You think I'm upset 'cause I got to let this guy kick my ass? I learned a long time ago, you can't control the violence. I can take the punishment. That's what I do. What I need to control is not out there. (touches his chest) It's here. Always.

(Sophie smiles and walks away)

- - - - -

hardison holds eliots face before he fights I never noticed that before

+ eliot’s hair is curly when it’s wet/when he’s sweaty. this means he blowdries his hair on a regular basis. eliot, as a part of taking control of himself and his life after moreau took interest in self care and taking care of his hair in this essay I will-

- - - - -

one thing I love about this is that eliot doesn’t have a six pack (see this commentary I made with a few lovely additions by my mutuals)

- - - - -

Jack: Where's Rucker?

Hardison: Oh, the Iowa State Police just got a tip that a fugitive is headed into their jurisdiction. And I'm pretty sure crossing state lines with a bag full of cash won't look too good.

Parker: Especially when they find the little surprise in his trunk.

[Flashback, Pawn Shop]

Parker: I need guns. (dumping money on counter) $6,000 worth. And one of those.

LMFAO THERE WAS A TUBA TOO

- - - - -

Doctor (examining Eliot): You took a hell of a pounding. We should get you a CT scan. You could have internal bleeding.

Jack: You let yourself get hammered like that on purpose? That's a hell of a lot of punishment to take.

Sophie: That's what he does.

- - - - -

eliot held the rope up for parker to step under when they were getting out of the ring

- - - - -

Sophie (to Parker): Pork rind? They're actually pretty good. (parker shakes her head and rubs her stomach) You sure?

sophie nO

[melissanovels]

♡ Chapter 5 of TRANSIENT TIME TRAVELLER is out! ♡

○ Read on my Website ○ Read on Tumblr (below) ○ Read on Ao3 ○ Read on Royal Road  ○

TTT  is an LGBTQ+ historical fantasy novel about Aida, a time traveller hellbent on proving the innocence of a 1,200-year-old dead queen, and Lorian, an escaped princess-turned-officer who wants to drain the royal blood from their body, & the two coming together with the help of their mischievous future selves.

♡ Reblogs are appreciated! ♡

Read Chapter 5 Below:

As Lorian walked into an empty classroom and waited for Aida and Mister Omar to leave, she pressed her back into the door and utterly lost it.

She covered her mouth with her gloved hands. She’d done it. She’d finally talked to Aida again. And she hadn’t been so crass as she’d been when they’d first met. The first time had been a complete disaster. With Aida being naked and Lorian open-mouthed staring at her, the curves of her wide hips and ass, her breasts, her face, her eyes. God help her, she’d never seen a woman’s body so openly before. All she’d wanted to do that night was slam her down into bed and do unspeakable things to her, yet what had Aida wanted? To talk about fantasy novels and a queen who’d been dead for 1,200 years. What had Lorian even said that’d led her up to Aida’s bedroom? She’d need to write it down for reference.

Despite being betrothed for more than half of her life, Lorian hadn’t a clue how courting worked. The girls she’d met in the palace were diplomatic and groomed to please her, all peachy smiles and saying whatever they needed to make her happy. She’d tried to court an Aldaían knight a few years back, but she’d only earned her name and her preference of cakes before they’d parted ways.

Aida’s attitude was so defiant, so cheeky and unbecoming that it would’ve sent Lorian’s father into hysterics. She wanted her. She wanted to crack her open and explore her mind and passions and give it back to her a ten-thousand fold.

Lorian dragged her hands down her face. Maybe she’d buy her a history book, really push more into the things she loved, or maybe a ticket to En Tempore Rose. The official one, the one that played in the Colosseum. She’d have to schedule a trip to the city center. She’d wear a cloak.

After she heard Aida run off somewhere, Lorian re-entered the library and backtracked for the books Aida had put away. They were old and leather-bound, with yellow pages that smelled of mothballs: History of Roma: From the Perspective of King Julius II to His People and Hidden Dangers of Visatorre in Roman History.

Lorian put that last one back. Aida was brave to read about history that was so rarely taught in class. Lorian had secretly read about it behind Missus’ Sharma’s back. She’d learned about the lost city-state of Siina and the belligerent queen who killed one of the dead kings, and how they killed and tortured those poor Visatorre people for sport soon afterwards as punishment. Thrown into the Colosseum with a pack of lions without any weapons with which to defend themselves. In this aisle alone, Lorian saw four other books detailing what a plight the Visatorre were to other people not blessed with the ability to travel through time.

She believed. The power to go back in time, acting as a ghost to witness history in the raw way it was intended, only to come back and harbor the pains of going backwards. She’d never understand their full pain, she could only educate herself and hope that that injustice would never happen again in her history.

After skimming through more of Aida’s books and realizing how little of it she retained, Lorian picked up the shortest read and went near the windows for light.

She got to page ten, most of which was a glorified chapter about how great the Roman kings were and are, when she heard someone call her name.

“Lorian, you fuck!”

Between the library and the writing hall was a strip of muddy grass. It was a shortcut between the buildings for her and other officers to travel. Two of them were there, calling for her: Alessio and Matteo, the two assholes she’d befriended that month.

“There he is, little bugger,” Alessio said, catching Lorian’s profile from the window. He climbed onto a rock wall to get closer. “Get out of there and come down. Lunch’s almost over!”

“Alright, alright,” she said, and slotted the book for later.

They were good boys, these two. She liked them enough to hang out with them while not on duty. They didn’t know this, and they never would, but she’d actually known them back at the palace. All officers-in-training had to go through a mandatory training program held by a Constable. Lorian had always favored officers for their rowdiness. She’d watch them work out in secret, sneak peeks at their naked bodies when they’d change. When she’d found that both Alessio and Matteo were working as security details at this academy, her decision had been made. A few faked letters of recommendation and her crafty ability to lie through her teeth and she was enrolled as an officer-in-training in a week.

They’d never known it was her as she paraded around as a young, unfavorable princess with incredibly long hair wearing the dresses she loathed, but she liked to tease them every now again with knowledge she shouldn’t have known.

“Hey, Alessio, have you ever been persuaded to eat worms?”

“Matteo, didn’t you pee yourself after seeing a real lion in captivity?”

“Have you two ever kissed on a dare?”

She’d lied to them, calling herself a good guesser.

She walked out of the library and turned the corner to find her boys, but they weren’t there. The yard was quiet; she heard the teachers writing on the chalkboard from the writing rooms.

She stilled her steps. From her knowledge, she knew nobody could truly vanish from the world for good. Something would always bring you back to where you were meant to be.

A twig snapped behind her, and she was put into a chokehold that stole away her breath. She could’ve gotten out of it easily, but she didn’t want to hurt who, from their laughing, she knew was Alessio. Alessio was a redhead with more power than Lorian believed him to have. Matteo, on the other hand, was softer, with dark, floppy hair and innocent eyes.

Laughing, Lorian took out her rapier and used the butt of the sword to knock the wind out of Alessio.

Alessio gagged and let her go. “Ow! You ass.”

“You attacked me.” She lightly kicked him for good measure. “What’re we doing now?”

“Late lunch,” Matteo said, and shared a loaf of bread. They weren’t students, but through their enlistment, they were given a dorm room that she shared with Alessio and Matteo and three simple meals ordained by their royal regimen. Sometimes, if they wooed the right girl or boy, they’d get sweets and even alcohol, something that was forbidden to officers. All three of them had already gotten drunk in that month alone.

They walked to their preferred eating space that the Academy cheekily called “The Defense Wall.” It separated the school from the villainous farmlands of lazy cows and stupid chickens. What used to be a formidable, three-meter tall fortress from a time period Aida probably knew about was now a blockage from the smelly farm animals that provided the school a portion of their eggs, milk, cheese, and occasional meat.

Lorian hopped atop an abandoned wagon of hay to scale the tall wall. Alessio followed her, and they needed to help Matteo make it due to his size. There, they shared their bread and butter and made horrible jokes for hours that, if any other officer heard them say, they would’ve had their hands whipped. Lorian had had her fair share of that back home and was keen not to get struck again for misbehaving.

As Lorian dined, Alessio asked her, “Why do you always spend your time in those libraries? You never read.”

It was true, Lorian wasn’t so much a learned soul as her mother and father pretended she was. She was a physical person who liked getting her hands dirty in order to understand something abstract. This had been her fourth trip to the library that week. The first attempt to find and talk to Aida had failed miserably and she was left hiding behind a bookshelf to spy on her. The other try and Aida hadn’t even been there. The girl kept Lorian on a leash and Lorian had no problem with that. “I do read. I know a great deal of things, much more than you do.”

“Then name two books you’ve loved over the past year. No, five authors, and no poets.”

“You try that. When’s the last time you ever picked up a book?” Lorian reached to pull on Alessio’s hair, but he jerked away and stuffed his mouth with his dry loaf end.

“That Miss spends her time there, doesn’t she?” Matteo asked. “That Aida girl.”

“The traveller?” Alessio asked. “She’s a weird one. I’ve talked with some of the girls in her class, and they say she’s really weird. I heard she’s gonna get the nix, you know?” He made a mark across his neck. “Cut out.”

“What do you mean?” Lorian asked.

“I heard it from my father, and he heard it from Constable Carmine. Word from the Lion is that he’s gonna bar those types of people from secondary education.”

Lorian’s ears heated up. “Carmine said that? And the king agreed to it? When?”

Alessio slowed his chewing at Lorian’s mention of Carmine’s name without his title. She had to stop doing that, being so informal about a man she shouldn’t have known so personally. “That’s just what I heard from my dad, so I think it’s true.”

Lorian rubbed her neck. She knew Carmine well enough to forgo titles when she’d address him in the palace, but after being promoted to Constable, she couldn’t say if this was something he’d enforce under the king’s orders or not. He’d exchange his heart for his duty.

But she wouldn’t have put this horrendous action past her father. He was the most racist, hurtful, selfish person she’d ever known, and she hated herself that parts of his speech and behaviors had sunk into her own bones. It took a great deal of unlearning to undo all of those negative stereotypes, and it took her finally leaving the house and joining the ranks to realize how real Visatorre people lived and how awful the world was to them.

“What’s to happen to her?” Matteo asked when they went silent.

“Dunno,” Alessio said. “Kick her out? There’s only a few of those people here, so it’s not like we’d notice right away.”

“But that’s not fair,” Lorian said. “She hasn’t done anything.”

“That’s not gonna stop them, you know that.”

“Then…I’ll stop them,” she promised, and tried mimicking how confident Aida sounded whenever she opened her mouth. “It’s not right. Do you know Miss Mirko uses a cane because of her illness—” She bit her cheek. “Uh, affliction. Can you imagine walking around with a cane at our age? It’s uncouth to belittle those who were born with advantages we weren’t given.”

Alessio pulled a face. “Don’t act high and mighty to me. This wasn’t my decision, I’m just the fucking messenger. And it’s not like we can change this.”

“Say I become a leading Constable, then,” Lorian argued. “I’d rewrite the rules to make them fair for everyone.”

“You wanna be a Constable?”

“Don’t you? Isn’t that the goal of being an officer, to one day be a Constable?”

“Eh, not really. Not for me, anyway. I just needed to get away from my mother, and this was the best option. To be a Constable means you have to put in ten, sometimes fifteen-hour-days and be on the king’s every beck and call. Thanks, but I’m good just being ordered around for simple things.”

“And I wanted to become stronger like my brothers are, but I don’t think I’m strong enough to do everything a Constable does,” Matteo said, and he looked across the field towards the water well. “Oh.”

Alessio and Lorian followed his intent gaze.

“Speak of the devil,” Alessio said.

Stomping down the fields, dress lifted to keep from stepping in cow droppings, was Aida on a mission. Her hands were bunched up in her dress, her teeth grit, and she was mumbling something to herself as her heels plowed through the dry mud. She’d lost her cane, shortening her steps.

Lorian brushed the crumbs off of her chest and stood up higher to better see her. She always walked with such determination, like she truly did not care how other people saw her. Lorian wanted to walk like that one day.

“Do you need a hand, Miss?” Alessio called out.

“Fuck off!” Aida yelled back.

Alessio tensed up. “What the fuck’s her problem?” he muttered.

“S-she isn’t allowed to talk to us like that,” Matteo said meekly. “What should we do?”

“We need to stop her. Hey—”

Lorian palmed Alessio’s chest, almost knocking him off completely before clutching his jacket and keeping him vertical.

“Ow! Lorian, what’s with you today?”

Lorian stared intently at Aida.

Silent tears were running down Aida’s cheeks as she walked. She wasn’t sobbing or weeping, the tears were simply there, though it was hard to tell why she was crying in the first place. It looked like she was off to kill somebody.

When she was out of sight and then some, Lorian got up, told her friends that she was thirsty, and secretly tailed Aida down her chosen path.

[agentemo]

“When the merger was under consideration, Live Nation’s lobbyists [...] displayed a sense of entitlement and dismissiveness toward their customers — a preview of how the company would wield its monopolistic power.” (x)

Live Nation purchased Ticketmaster in 2009 during the recession, creating a monopoly on the online ticket sale industry.

no doubt this merger allowed for the abusive and manipulative tactics used by Live Nation Entertainment to create artificial scarcity and drive up ticket prices due to supposed demand. as recently as December 2019, the United States Department of Justice told Live Nation to stop forcing concert venues to use their services. and that's not even what this post is about. (x)

they do more than ticket sales; Live Nation was originally a concert promoter and the merger made them an entertainment industry juggernaut, taking over festivals the like of Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza as well as artist management. they have control over so much of the concert sphere, from venues to events to sales to the artists themselves.

it's no wonder no one tries to challenge them: they are the mainstream music industry.

when MCR's last show before the breakup occurred, it was 2012 and things weren't that bad yet. from what I recall, my first real clash with the company's shitty tactics was in attempting to purchase Fall Out Boy reunion tickets a year later. I paid about the same amount for that ticket as I did my MCR ticket... except that ticket got me barricade at a 5k venue and was purchased on a third party website. my MCR ticket is a nosebleed in one of the largest stadiums in my city and was purchased on Ticketmaster.

MCR came back to a broken music industry that actively views fans as golden geese useful only for revenue, a music industry that knows just how profitable MCR can be and will exploit it, and young new fans that don't have the experience of a less aggressively manipulative system. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt because I know that the system they must operate in is broken. but I'm angry that it's broken, that so many people see that it's broken, and all that's been done legally is telling Live Nation Entertainment not to force venues to use their services - which isn't going to put a dent in their billions because they control so much of the concert sphere anyway

the only solve is breaking up Live Nation but it also must be considered how little artists make from streams and how so much of their paychecks come from live shows - yet I don't really see the Ticketmaster issues occurring with smaller artists. the tactics of this monopoly are put in place to keep not just the execs at this company rich and make them richer, but to also uphold the status quo threatened by the rise of digital music consumption and keep famous musical artists - including the boys of MCR - rich. the alternative would probably be that MCR never play a show again, since Live Nation has a chokehold on the industry.

there's a reason MCR were asked repeatedly by various promoters and the like about reuniting, for years. not because fans wanted it, not because of their legacy, not because of their importance to a generation of fans and a future generation of musicians. but because industry professionals saw an opportunity. we can blame Warner Brothers all we want but at the very least Live Nation is a huge, glaring part of the problem - and probably the main one.

[kaisooficrec]

College AU Request

This is part two of this post. 

Last college au request was over a year ago and since this is a very popular au the list is insanely long! There are some fics older than the last req but that weren’t recommended yet so I included those too ^^ enjoy and don’t forget to leave kudos & comments to the authors ♡♡♡

La Taille Parfaite - (ongoing) soulmates au, kyungsoo dreams of his soulmate’s dick and can’t wait to meet him

Criminally Romantic - kyungsoo is an author and jongin is a huge fan

Yes, the Brisket is Braised - (ongoing) Kyungsoo works part-time in a restaurant in which he meets the campus’ most popular jock jongin and is an asshole to him

Our Season - (ongoing) wolf & abo, they’re in the same frat house and are attracted to each other, but there are other guys who want a piece of kyungsoo’s ass (read: junmyeon is a little piece of shit)

The Deflowering of Do Kyungsoo - (ongoing) kyungsoo is very insecure about himself but jongin loves him and wants to show him just how much 

Sucker + Supermassive Black Hole - last two parts of a series where the boys are in college, established relationship, they deal with the struggles of life and how to keep their love going

Flawless - (ongoing) kyungsoo likes to crossdress which make people judgmental about him. he thought jongin was like all those people who make fun of him but jongin genuinely likes him

this gap can’t keep us apart - (ongoing) kyungsoo is in college and takes the bus every morning where he meets businessman!jongin and they start talking and getting close. turns out jongin is sehun’s older brother who is kyungsoo’s friend and they meet at their house when jongin discovered his girlfriend cheated on him again

Prank Gone Wrong - kai is a known prankster, so his bf ksoo decides to prank him instead one day. it backfires in a way he didn’t expect

Coffee - jongin found out taemin cheated on him which led him to the cafe where kyungsoo works~

Wild Flowers Worth Knowing - (ongoing) ot12 vampire au, kyungsoo’s life has changed for good after discovering vamp!jongin’s secret

i just need the time and place to come through - after ksoo’s been dumped jongin wants to teach how to fuck around, until he realizes he doesn’t want anyone else to have kyungsoo but him

run batted in - sports au, they’re from different colleges and during a competition they meet and voilà it’s instant love

Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls - (ongoing) kyungsoo is in a studio art class and jongin is his nude model

lately all i want is you on top of me - *cries hearts* they both think they’re straight until jongin accidentally sends a pic of his ass to kyungsoo and it marks the beginning of their gayness

Campaigning For Your Heart - elections au, enemies to lovers, they both support different people and get into heated arguments, which is all just bottled up sexual tension really

there are no wrong mistakes - /heart attack/ kyungsoo is a homebody who’s quiet and thinks he is boring. his roommate’s best friend thinks otherwise. 

Pay Me Some Mind - (how was this not recced before? lol) fwb to lovers, kyungsoo doesnt know jongin’s had a crush on him for a while but that doesn’t stop him from catching feelings

Hurricanes - *my absolute fav* bad boy!jongin meets not-so-innocent!soo and they fuck, but kyungsoo thinks its a mistake and jongin is intrigued (liiiight angst)

You times infinite - they become study buddies and then kyungsoo is turned into a vampire and doesn’t know how to stay close to jongin without hurting him

A Certain Romance - sports au, they’re from different schools but during a competition, a certain captain catches ksoo’s attention and maybe he’s interested in football after all

Signal Lost (& Found) - /looooove this/ soulmates & coffee shop au, jongin gets tattoos of what his soulmate draws since he was a child and then one day it disappears, and he’s confused about what happened to his soulmate

Just Say You Want Me (That’s All It Takes) - god yes. established relationship and library fucking with top!soo and slut shaming. need i say more?

A Different Morning - (YEEEES) childhood bffs!kaisoo and vlogger!jongin, MUTUAL PINING but they’re both oblivious!!! 

Break a Leg - drama club au i liiiive for this! they had a one night stand and ksoo is kind of a bitter asshole who doesn’t want anything to do with super popular jongin after it

vertigo; crash - abo, omega!soo is accidentally put in the alpha dorms and jongin thinks he hates him

Clandestine Romance - arranged marriage but they love each other, ksoo is in his last year of college and his husband turns up to become his new dance teacher

Pumped Up Kinks - (ongoing) kyungsoo goes to a gay strip club for his 21st birthday and gets more than he bargained for

We Can Go Home - broken kaisoo, jongin has to ask his ex for help in maths, and then... KISS & MAKE UP

Mirrors - (ongoing) ksoo is a famous youtuber whose fans start a online fanwar with kim jongin’s fans. he decides to be mature about it and text jongin himself to apologize

So You Have a Crush (Here's How You Grapple with It) - sports au, jongin is a taekwondo player and has a crush on the judo captain ksoo, and tries to get him to teach him chokehold techniques. (smutttt)

Hair - (ongoing) kyungsoo found out he has stage 2 spinal cancer, so he decides that he wants to take some risks before he has to die, like have sex with a guy. and this is how he meets jongin

If Only I Knew - soulmates au, jongin wants to wait to find his soulmate to be in a relationship but when he meets kyungsoo he changes his mind (warning: character death)

Some Kind of Start - ksoo likes jongin and the latter knows but chooses to ignore it since he doesn’t like him back. sehun asks ksoo to fake date so he can make junmyeon jealous, but jongin is also a victim of jealousy

hold onto me tight and never let go - het!kaisoo with fem!soo, she has trouble letting go of her barriers and jongin really wants to get to know her more

P.S. You're Cute - (ongoing) jongin liked his senior’s profile on tinder and they matched

Cloud9 - transition from hs to college, jongin expressed his crush for ksoo although nothing happened, they meet again five years later in college

Perfection - vocal major!ksoo meets dance major!nini and decides he likes him and will take care of him

A Slice of Summer Love - jongin has a crush on the pizza delivery guy and orders too much pizza (very cute uwu)

I’m sorry I broke your hand, date me so I can make it up to you (kinda) - jongin tripped during a party and groped ksoo’s ass by accident, and ksoo’s reaction was to break his arm, but he took care of him as a form of apology

Aspartame (Just As Sweet) - jongin’s friend creates him an account on a sugar daddy website as a joke but he was curious and kept it and met kyungsoo

Kim Jongin's Must Kiss List - after an accident during a bake sale in high school, ksoo doesn’t stand jongin. in college nini puts up a “would kiss” list with ksoo’s name on it among others, and an angry ksoo retaliates by putting up a “would never kiss” list with only nini’s name on it, which is the start of everything

Love In Control - bdsm!au in which kyungsoo wanted a partner that would understand his needs and how to dominate him, and that person is kim jongin (warning: obviously bdsm and everything that comes with it. please read the tags carefully!)

No buts, just beauty - wolf au, kyungsoo is bullied and being told he’s ugly, jongin is making sure he feels beautiful

[Ain't] My Fault - top!soo greatness :-) they meet while jongin’s still with sehun but they break up soon after bc sehun cheated on him, and ksoo’s here to pick up the broken pieces

Treasure Trove - dragon au, ksoo is sick n jongin went to his room to give him candy and then they netflix and chill (literally)

Waiting for You to Make a Move - i’m fucking in love with this fic omg ;___; JONGIN IS A DRUM PLAYER and they were crushing on each other during the bus ride in the morning and then ksoo goes to chanyeol’s band’s gig and THERE HE IS JONGIN THAT SEXY MOTHERFUCKER. yes read it please (smut)

This is a start of something new.. - police officer!soo goes to check a college party that wasn’t reported and is stuck with a flirty jongin

Cafe Eau Laid - /sweats profusely/ wolf au and coffee shop au, jongin has a crush on a cute costumer that comes otfen but thinks the friend that comes along is his boyfriend when he’s really just an idiot. (public sex n size kink, you know its good)

My Universe - set in college au but it’s also mama au, jongin is having weird dreams that seem like memories of another life, and dreams of a certain guy that he seems close with.

Sweep You Off Your Feet (Or Mop Around) - kyungsoo works as a janitor at nini’s college to help support his family. they get to know each other and kyungsoo doesn’t tell him he’s not a student but after an incident, he’s fired from the job and has to forget about jongin as well

This is the college au tag for older requests ♡

- Admin Macaroon

[huangels]

➧ 85 questions

tagged by: @jencto ty my love! ♡

rules: answer these 85 statements about yourself, then tag 20 people @ohdaddy-nct @dcyoungs @rxnjuns @reunjun @angelita-gordita @taeybear @taezhu @lycheechann and all who wants to do!! (only if u want too bbs)

↳ Last���?

1. drink ─ hot burning coffee that i almost spilled while driving to class bc it’s pouring outside

2. phone call ─ laura (my friend who just graduated high school !!)

3. text message ─ my mom (telling me to drive safe in the rain uwu) 

4. song you listened to ─ jump by shinee (the album = a whole ass bop) 

5. time you cried ─ oof i cry for the lamest and dumbest reasons but last night i was looking at nct fanart and i saw a cute ass noren one where jeno was dressed in a big moomin costume and wished renjun a good day w/ a ballon and it was all hella cute and shit lemme find it i rb on my personal (THIS ONE) it was,, so cute,, i actually cried,, 

↳ Ever…?

6. dated someone twice ─ oof i rarely date let alone the same person twice lmao yikes

7. kissed someone and regretted it ─ i kissed this huge asshole in high school for a dare and he wouldn’t stop saying we had sex for a whole ass week,, this is why i dont date

8. been cheated on ─ nope

9. lost someone special ─ yeah but that’s the circle of life i guess :(

10. been depressed ─ oof did you mean: my four years of high school 

11. gotten drunk and thrown up ─ uhh psh no i don’t drink underaged,,, mhm

12. fave colors ─ WARM TONES!! nudes (skin colors), maroon/burgendy (just like a dark bloody red), rose gold/dusty pink (the light shade of pink but not pastel), black (just bc), royal blue (the only cool toned color i like idhhdh) 

↳ In the last year have you…

15. made new friends ─ yO making new friends is my middle name (i love making new friends !!) 

16. fallen out of love ─ i’ve never BEEN in love... 

17. laughed until you cried ─ if it’s after midnight, anything will make me laugh and cry (also i laugh at everything so yes)

18. found out someone was talking about you ─ lmao hell yeah high school drama everyone was out for me bc i look like a bitch and people are so quick to judge ://

19. met someone who changed you ─ umm not really everyone’s pretty chill. my roommate, who’s also like my best friend, is a huge party addict so she brings me to many parties, so i guess i’m more out there ? idk moving on 

20. found out who your friends are ─ literally once i graduated high school and went to college, all of the snakes just left and now i’m surrounded by my real friends uwu :^] why tf is everything related to high school i don't wanna remember that

21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list ─ bruh i only have facebook so i can get extra rewards on iphone games ksjkdj 

↳ General

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl ─ refer to #21

23. do you have any pets ─ i, myself, don’t have one bc i live in a dorm, but back at home, i have a doggo. she’s a thai ridgeback and her name is 巧克力 (qiao ke li = chocolate) and i miss her vv much :’))

24. do you want to change your name ─ for the most part no, i like my name, but when people call me ‘ran-you’ or something of the sort, i question why i live in america

25. what did you do for your last birthday ─ i traveled around china alone (well with my two friends back in china) without my parents for the first time bc i was an Adult™ now

26. what time did you wake up today ─ i was supposed to wake up at 8am but i didn't roll out of bed until 8:30am but hey, i made it to my 9am class 10 minutes early somehow

27. what were you doing at midnight last night ─ looking at nct fanart on tumblr and wishing that i coud draw/paint like that :’))

28. what is something you can’t wait for ─ my trip to spain!! i’m traveling to spain for 2 weeks with my friend at the end of june to july and i’m so excited bc i haven’t hung out w/ him in forever

30. what are you listening to right now ─ i’m in my accounting 2 class rn,,, so my professor lecturing about debits and credits (yes i know i should be paying attention but i’m an independent learner so i prefer reading the textbook and taking notes,, i’m just here bc attendance is graded)

31. have you ever talked to a person named tom ─ my old high school teacher whose first lecture was about corn and how it’s in EVERYTHING that is mass- produced today,,, well his full name is actually thomas

32. something that’s getting on your nerves ─ it was raining as i was walking to class and even though i had an umbrella, somehow my pants are still all drenched and this lecture room is SO DAMN COLD and i’m shivering someone save ME

33. most visited website ─ my school website lol

34. hair colour ─ jet black but in the sun it turns reddish brown ?

35. long or short hair ─ super long, it reaches my waist lol 

36. do you have a crush on someone ─ does renjun count? jk kinda ?? but not really bc,, idk dating doesn’t really act as a major objective for me right now

37. what do you like about yourself ─ friendliness and outgoingness ?

38. want any piercings? ─ oof i already have a lot but i want more yes (i have 3 on both my lobes, 1 on my both cartilages, and on my right ear i have a snug ? is that what it’s called idk) lowkey highkey i wanna pierce my nose but we’ll see

39. blood type ─ o 

40. nicknames ─ all nicknames i’ve ever gotten: ren, renu (my baby cousin calls me that bc she can barely pronounce words), fish..., nyu, rennie, r, human fish, + many puns on my name

41. relationship status ─ single and tired

42. zodiac ─ scorpio 

43. pronouns ─ she/her

44. fave tv shows ─ the office, black mirror, we bare bears, law and order,  futurama, stranger things, bob’s burgers, bate’s motel, american horror story (i love the duality between cartoons and fucked up shows dsdkjh) 

45. tattoos ─ i want ones !! (prob small in hidden places) but um maybe once i graduate undergrad at least 

46. right or left handed ─ right handed

47. ever had surgery ─ no - kinda? i have a scar on my eyelid bc when i was like 3-4 y/o, i was playing hide and seek w/ my uncle and cousin in china and i was running around and i turned quickly around a counter the same height as me and the corner of the counter cut open my eyelid,, this is kinda tmi but i was so stunned bc blood was running literally out of my eye so i didn’t even cry, i just stood there like ‘oh...that’s a lot of blood...’ i went to the ER to get it stitched up but idk if that counts as surgery :p

48. piercings ─ refer to #38 

49. sport ─ currently i play volleyball and basketball for club, but played a lot in high school too

50. vacation ─ anywhere i love traveling !! also east asian,, mostly just china i miss my friends and family :’))

51. trainers ─ ?? uhh as in shoes? or the gym? idk,,

↳ More general

52. eating ─ as in what i ate today? if so, a bagel and a boiled egg for breakfast

53. drinking ─ coffee that’s now cold rip

54. i’m about to watch ─ uhh my professor continue talking about accounting and economics 

55. waiting for ─ this class to end so i can eat lunch 

56. want ─ a change of pants bc i’M WET AND COLD 

57. get married ─ i sure hope so

58. career ─ i want to start and own a fashion brand/company/line (i’m double majoring in international business and trade + leadership management right now)

↳ Which is better

59. hugs or kisses ─ both i just want affection ;((

60. lips or eyes ─ these are hard to pick but eyes !

61. shorter or taller ─ taller even though i’m pretty tall as it is 

62. older or younger ─ older or the same age ? (rip sorry renjun) 

63. nice arms or stomach ─ arms? i need you to be able to put me in a chokehold and KO me (not in a kinky way,,, maybe,,,)

64. hookup or relationship ─ relationship duh ?

65. troublemaker or hesitant ─ team too-lazy-to-be-either

↳ Have you ever

66. kissed a stranger ─ uhh prob not

67. drank hard liquor ─ no officer i don’t drink underaged mhm

68. lost glasses ─ i literally have like 6 pairs of glasses that i keep thinking i’ve lost but then find it again 

69. turned someone down ─ oof yeah sorry 

70. sex on first date ─ no i have standards 

71. broken someone’s heart ─ i hope not ! at least not intentionally  

72. had your heart broken ─ prob once or twice 

73. been arrested ─ in my good christian household?! (i’m not even christian tf)

74. cried when someone died ─ well of course i have a heart

75. fallen for a friend ─ all my friends are hot as fuck no lie

↳ Do you believe in…?

76. yourself ─ always :D !!

77. miracles ─ eh,,

78. love at first sight ─ maybe not LOVE but something similar

79. santa claus ─ i-is he not real... (i’m kidding dbksj)

80. kiss on a first date ─ sure why not

81. angels ─ renjun is a walking angel on earth

↳ Other

82. best friend’s name ─ vincent, alyssa (my two fave people) 

83. eye colour ─ dark poop brown

84. fave movie ─ i watch too many to have 1 favorite but for the sake of this tag, i’ll say coraline 

85. fave actor ─ i have a big gay crush on dilraba dilmurat also tom holland 

el fin

[sometimesrosy]

You know how Clarke's red in her hair is significant to her mental state? Well what about Bellamy's beard? This is the definition of the beard tv trope from a tv trope website; "One of the easiest ways to show that a male character has fallen into depression is to show him with unkempt stubble or a full beard after a Time Skip..." so that worries me a little bit.

Well, that’s one thing it could mean… but I’m not sure it means that on this show. Because we had Kane go the same route with his hair and beard and it wasn’t about depression, but rather about a loosening of his tight adherence to the rule of law… because he discovered following the law was not always the right thing to do. A man who lived his life enforcing strict, life or death codes learned how to let it all go and open up room for ambiguity and uncertainty.

And Bellamy is kind of wearing a Marcus kind of look.

For him, it might represent that he has let go of his need to control everything around him, to always be perfect, to keep everyone safe. 

Jasper had depression and he shaved all his hair off and grew a vandyke. 

So while this show absolutely uses hair and costume to represent the mental state of the characters, we have to stop and think what they are trying to show with the look, because it might not just mean “depression.” I think the most depressed we ever saw him was on the Ark after Octavia was put in the sky box and Aurora was floated. Once he was given something to do, an action to take, I’m not sure Bellamy ever fell into a depression again. He turns his trauma to action. Too much action. This intense drive to fix things and take care of people and save everyone. Trying to control things. So him letting go and not wearing a uniform and letting his hair and beard grow might rather represent a loosening up of that chokehold on his heart and mind. 

When theorizing about what things mean, in this show or with anything, it’s good to double check your theories with other evidence. You can use a trope or archetype or common language, like you did here, recognizing that we often see this look to represent depression, but double check against the show itself, too, to see how they particularly use the symbolism, and if there could be other meanings that might fit better.

I don’t KNOW what Bellamy will be like when he comes back. The depression is a possibility, but so is the letting go. And since Bob said Bellamy becomes a holistic leader after living in peacetime, I lean towards a more casual, relaxed Bellamy. 

[ravnlghtft]

SENATOR BALDWIN JOINS SENATORS BOOKER AND HARRIS, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS IN INTRODUCING THE JUSTICE IN POLICING ACT OF 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), as well as Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass (D-CA) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), in introducing the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, the first-ever bold, comprehensive approach to hold police accountable, change the culture of law enforcement and build trust between law enforcement and our communities.

“The pain people are expressing through peaceful protests is real. I see it, I hear the calls for change and I know we have to work to heal the wounds of racism in our country. We can say liberty and justice for all, but we need to make sure everyone can live this value,” said Senator Baldwin. “We need federal reforms to improve police training and practices, and to ensure transparency and accountability. That’s why I’m joining Senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and the Congressional Black Caucus to introduce this comprehensive reform to change the culture of policing in our communities. This is long overdue and we must meet this critical moment now to address systemic racism and fix policing policies in our country.”

“America has a serious and deadly problem when it comes to the discriminatory and excessive policing of communities of color - and that policing exists within a system that time and again refuses to hold police accountable for their brutality. For too long, this has been accepted as a cruel reality of being black in this country. We are forced to figure out how to keep ourselves safe from law enforcement and we are viewed as a threat to be protected against instead of people worth protecting. And for too long, Congress has failed to act. That ends today with the landmark Justice in Policing Act which, for the first time in history, will take a comprehensive approach to ending police brutality. On the back-end, the bill fixes our federal laws so law enforcement officers are held accountable for egregious misconduct and police abuses are better tracked and reported. And on the front-end, the bill improves police practices and training to prevent these injustices from happening in the first place,” said Senator Booker.

“America’s sidewalks are stained with Black blood. In the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor’s murders, we must ask ourselves: how many more times must our families and our communities be put through the trauma of an unarmed Black man or woman’s killing at the hands of the very police who are sworn to protect and serve them? As a career prosecutor and former Attorney General of California, I know that real public safety requires community trust and police accountability. I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this historic legislation that will get our country on a path forward,” said Senator Harris.

“What we are witnessing is the birth of a new movement in our country with thousands coming together in every state marching to demand a change that ends police brutality, holds police officers accountable, and calls for transparency. For over 100 years, Black communities in America have sadly been marching against police abuse and calling for the police to protect and serve them as they do others. Today we unveil the Justice in Policing Act, which will establish a bold transformative vision of policing in America. Never again should the world be subjected to witnessing what we saw on the streets in Minnesota with George Floyd,” said Congressional Black Caucus Chair Bass.

“We have heard the terrifying words ‘I can’t breathe’ from George Floyd, Eric Garner, and the millions of Americans in the streets calling out for change. For every incident of excessive force that makes headlines, the ugly truth is that there are countless others that we never hear about. This is a systemic problem that requires a comprehensive solution. I am proud to work in lockstep with the Congressional Black Caucus to craft the Justice in Policing Act. This bold, transformative legislation will finally ban chokeholds at the federal level and incentivize states to do the same, it will help end racial profiling, get weapons of war off our streets, hold police accountable, increase transparency and require and encourage greater use of body cameras. It does all of this while ensuring that our law enforcement agencies adhere to the very highest standards in training, hiring and de-escalation strategies to address systemic racism and bias to change the culture of law enforcement in America and ultimately save lives. I hope to take up this legislation in the House Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks,” said House Judiciary Committee Chair Nadler.

The Justice in Policing Act of 2020:

Prohibits federal, state, and local law enforcement from racial, religious and discriminatory profiling, and mandates training on racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling for all law enforcement.

Bans chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants at the federal level and limits the transfer of military-grade equipment to state and local law enforcement.

Mandates the use of dashboard cameras and body cameras for federal offices and requires state and local law enforcement to use existing federal funds to ensure the use of police body cameras.

Establishes a National Police Misconduct Registry to prevent problematic officers who are fired or leave on agency from moving to another jurisdiction without any accountability.

Amends federal criminal statute from “willfulness” to a “recklessness” standard to successfully identify and prosecute police misconduct.

Reforms qualified immunity so that individuals are not barred from recovering damages when police violate their constitutional rights.

Establishes public safety innovation grants for community-based organizations to create local commissions and task forces to help communities to re-imagine and develop concrete, just and equitable public safety approaches.

Creates law enforcement development and training programs to develop best practices and requires the creation of law enforcement accreditation standard recommendations based on President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Requires state and local law enforcement agencies to report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, and age.

Improves the use of pattern and practice investigations at the federal level by granting the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division subpoena power and creates a grant program for state attorneys general to develop authority to conduct independent investigations into problematic police departments.

Establishes a Department of Justice task force to coordinate the investigation, prosecution and enforcement efforts of federal, state and local governments in cases related to law enforcement misconduct.

In addition to Baldwin, Booker and Harris, co-sponsors of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 in the Senate are Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tom Carper (D-DE), Bob Casey (D-PA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tom Udall (D-NM), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). The bill is supported by 166 members in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 has the support of a broad coalition of civil rights organizations including: Demand Progress, Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Action Network, National African American Clergy Network, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP), Black Millennial Convention, and the National Urban League.

“The National African American Clergy Network supports the Justice in Policing Bill. It affirms sacred scripture that everyone is created in the image of God and deserves to be protected by police sworn to value and safeguard all lives. Failure by police to uphold this sacred trust with Black Americans lives, requires systemic changes in policing nationwide,” said Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., and Dr. T. DeWitt Smith, Jr., Co-Conveners of the National African American Clergy Network (NAACN).

“It's time to close the chapter on a dark era of unchecked police violence in our country that has wreaked havoc on African American families across the country. The Justice in Policing Act is historic and long overdue legislation that will put our country on a path to reform. This Act is responsive to many of the urgent demands being pressed for by our communities and by the people protesting for racial justice and equity across our nation. The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law commends the Congressional Black Caucus for their leadership on policing reform and this critical legislation, including Chair Karen Bass, Senator Cory Booker and Senator Kamala Harris,” said Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

“Sometimes difficult circumstances present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring about historic change,” said Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League. “The brutal actions of police in George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, along with botched execution of a no-knock warrant that killed Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and the brazen vigilante execution of Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia, have pushed the nation to the tipping point.”

“For the past four-plus centuries, Black people have continuously been made to endure unfair, unjust, and inhumane treatment in this country. We have been made to believe in that if we worked hard, never complained, and accepted what the world offered that would be enough. What the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others have taught us is that obedience will never be enough; liberty and justice for all applies to everyone but us; and by us, we mean Black Americans, African Americans, Afro-Americans, or plainly put, Black people,” said Waikinya J.S. Clanton, MBA, Black Millennial Convention.

Full text of the legislation is available here:

https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/justice_in_policing_act_of_2020_section_by_section.pdf

[wallpapernifty]

Five Brilliant Ways To Advertise Dahlia Drawing | Dahlia Drawing

Police arrest protesters walking on FDR Drive, endlessly traffic, as they authenticate over the afterlife of George Floyd by a Minneapolis badge administrator at a assemblage on May 30, 2020 in New York.

BRYAN R. SMITH/Getty Images

“I can’t breathe.” That was one of the aftermost things George Floyd could be heard adage as Minneapolis Badge Administrator Derek Chauvin affianced him to the arena with his knee until he died. In 2015, Eric Harris was advance by Tulsa assets agent Robert Bates, and as Harris struggled to breathe, addition cop on the arena told him, “fuck your breath.” Eric Garner’s aftermost words in 2015, were “I can’t breathe,” eleven times, as he pleaded for air while administrator Daniel Pantaleo captivated him in a chokehold, arch affianced to a sidewalk, until he died.

Aback you die from the coronavirus, your lungs ample with aqueous until you are asthmatic to draw breath. “I couldn’t breathe” is the descriptor I apprehend best frequently from accompany who’ve been put on ventilators, who alarm asthmatic for air, and a affectionate of slow-burn drowning acquaintance in the lungs.

Aback we go to the store, gloved and masked, the affliction allotment is the mask, which according to the Centers for Ache Control and Prevention, needs to snugly awning both the adenoids and mouth. For abounding people, the

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[ladystylestores]

The Persistence of Police Killings

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Good morning. A federal program to replace school lunches isn’t working. Facebook is OK with encouraging polarization. And four Minneapolis police officers have been fired after a black man’s death during an arrest.

During a six-month span in 2014, four separate police killings of African-Americans grabbed the country’s attention. Eric Garner died after being put in a chokehold in New York, while Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.; Laquan McDonald in Chicago; and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland were all shot.

The killings sparked a debate about how to reduce deaths caused by the police. In response, more police departments directed their officers to wear body cameras. Some introduced new training programs. Civil-rights activists and politicians began paying more attention to the issue.

Six years later, however, there is no sign of meaningful change, at least on the national level. The number of police killings has hovered around 1,100 every year since 2013, according to Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group. (A Washington Post database shows a similar pattern.)

Now the subject is back in the spotlight.

On Monday night, a Minneapolis man named George Floyd died after a police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while he lay on the ground. The case was the latest in which the official police report presented a different story from a cellphone video that later emerged. In the video, Floyd can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” again and again.

Four officers involved in the arrest were fired yesterday. “Being black in America should not be a death sentence,” Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said. “For five minutes, we watched a white officer press his knee into a black man’s neck. Five minutes.”

What, if anything, might finally succeed in reducing police killings? I thought it would be worth sharing a few suggestions from around the country that I found while trying to make sense of the latest case:

Samuel Sinyangwe of Campaign Zero, a group formed after Brown’s death: Restrict chokeholds, train officers to de-escalate conflicts and prohibit them from shooting at moving vehicles, among other steps.

A 2019 California law: Change the standard for when an officer can legally use deadly force, from one based on a “reasonable belief” of imminent danger to one in which a later review finds it “necessary.”

Jennifer Cobbina, Michigan State University: Implicit-bias training for officers and “frank engagement between law enforcement and the people they serve to address tensions, grievances and misconceptions.”

David French, National Review: Acknowledge that “many controversial police shootings are lawful and justifiable” but also stop accepting excuses and cover-ups for those that are not.

Chuck Wexler, Police Executive Research Forum: Train officers to intervene when a colleague “may be on the brink of using excessive force,” as Los Angeles and New Orleans are doing.

FOUR MORE BIG STORIES

1. Slow start for a hunger relief program

An emergency program created by Congress to replace school meals during the coronavirus outbreak has reached only about 15 percent of eligible children, according to an analysis by The Times. One problem: Outdated state computers.

Other virus developments:

2. Trump vs. Twitter

Twitter said yesterday that it would not remove Trump’s tweets spreading a baseless conspiracy theory that the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough killed Lori Klausutis, a former congressional staff member who died in 2001 of a medical condition.

Klausutis’s widower had pleaded with Twitter to remove the posts, writing in a letter, “I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the president of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain.”

A Twitter first: The company added a fact-checking link yesterday below two Trump tweets that made false claims about mail-in ballots.

3. How the Taliban endured

Senior military officials plan to present Trump with an option to pull all American troops out of Afghanistan before the November election, at least six months ahead of schedule. But commanders are expected to advise against that option, out of concern that it could doom the peace deal reached this year with the Taliban.

4. Facebook chooses polarization

An internal Facebook analysis found that the platform was helping polarize the country, but senior executives decided to shelve the analysis and not take action, The Wall Street Journal reported. One presentation given to senior executives warned that “if left unchecked,” Facebook would feed users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.”

Kevin Roose, a technology columnist at The Times, explains: “It raises the possibility that these presentations — and others like them — will come to be seen as a smoking gun for Facebook, the way that tobacco and oil companies had known about the hazards of their products years before they publicly admitted it.”

Here’s what else is happening

The National Hockey League announced a plan to finish its virus-shortened season. The top 24 teams will compete in a round-robin playoff, likely hosted in empty arenas in two cities.

A white woman in New York was fired from her job after a video captured her calling the police on an African-American man in Central Park who asked her to leash her dog, as required.

Jimmy Cobb, a jazz drummer who was part of Miles Davis’s seminal album “Kind of Blue,” died Sunday at 91.

BACK STORY: SPACE LAUNCH

Two NASA astronauts are set to blast off to the International Space Station today. But it will be different from past launches: This will be the first one run by a private company — SpaceX, founded by the entrepreneur Elon Musk. Kenneth Chang, a science reporter, offers some perspective:

Back in 1968, Pan Am started issuing memberships for its “First Moon Flights” club to space enthusiasts hoping to someday book a commercial flight there. It was a fanciful promotion — the membership card was free — but more than 93,000 people signed up. Pan Am is long out of business, and we’re still a long way before someone can buy a ticket to the moon, but the SpaceX launch is the first real step toward that dream.

Although NASA has been involved in working with SpaceX, this is SpaceX’s operation. In the future, NASA will simply pay the going rate for a ticket to the space station and not be involved with running its own space transportation system to low-Earth orbit.

More: The launch, scheduled for 4:33 p.m. Eastern time, will be streaming live on NASA’s website starting at noon.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT, READ

Take a (virtual) food tour across America

Pepperoni rolls, cold noodles, New England seafood chowder — there are some meals that just taste better coming from a favorite restaurant.

Read a buzzy sophomore novel

Four years ago, Brit Bennett released her debut novel, “The Mothers,” centered on friends growing up in a small-town black community in California. Now she returns with the highly anticipated “The Vanishing Half,” about twin sisters who lead diverging lives, one as a black woman and the other passing as white.

“Bennett is a remarkably assured writer who mostly sidesteps the potential for melodrama inherent in a form built upon secrecy and revelation,” Parul Sehgal, a book critic for The Times, wrote in a review. “The past laps at the present in short flashbacks, never weighing down the quick current of a story that covers almost 20 years.”

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David

P.S. The word “ervaringsdeskundige” — Flemish for “experience expert” — appeared for the first time in The Times yesterday, as noted by the Twitter bot @NYT_first_said.

Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about the threat that the coronavirus is posing to the U.S. Postal Service.

Lauren Leatherby, Ian Prasad Philbrick and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.

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